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Exponential growth in the capabilities of CAD software eventually will require companies to upgrade CAD hardware systems so an organization can benefit from the new design functions. The overall goal of any upgrade should be to maximize these benefits to improve the company’s workflow (and the bottom line).

Here at CADspeed, we’ve helped you plan a CAD software and hardware upgrade with your IT department with this philosophy in mind. But once the upgrade is complete, what should you do with the older CAD hardware systems?

First we’ll look at the possible internal needs within an organization.

1. Not All CAD Operators Have the Same Needs

The truth is, not every CAD user may need the latest and greatest hardware. Many organizations have employees performing different levels of CAD work. High-level users obviously should be the first in line for upgrades. Will their older machines work for users who aren’t doing 3D rendering or CAE work?

Naturally, the entire CAD department needs to work together on projects, so prevent obvious conflicts that could occur on different operating systems or software versions, for example. You want your team to be as efficient and effective as possible. The point is, take a good look at how your CAD department functions and make sure your CAD hardware systems are meeting your needs.

2. Non-CAD Employees

Older CAD hardware still may have a lot of life left in it for non-CAD users. Systems that were cutting edge only three or four years ago for CAD may be still be perfectly usable for other staff members who won’t ever open a CAD file. Managers, administrators, support staff and assistants could extend the life of older systems, which are still perfectly capable of running less-powerful software.

For example, if you have employees who use mainly email, web browsers and basic office programs, older CAD systems may run these less-intensive software applications without any problem. Take a look at your entire organization, not just the CAD department.

This series focuses on helping our readers understand what CAD workstations cost and how much they are going to have to spend to find a machine that meets their CAD production needs. The first part focused on entry-level systems. This post will discuss mid-range ($2,500 to $7,000) and high-end (more than $7,000) systems.

Mid-Range and High-End

Stepping up to the mid-range and high-end, you’ll typically find dual-socket Intel Xeon processors along with full tower enclosures to handle more slots and drive bays. Spring for a dual-socket system and you’ll get twice as many CPU cores, twice as much memory bandwidth, and twice the memory capacity.

Some OEMs are going to great lengths to show off the enhanced speed of processors and increased capacity of both graphics cards (for multi-monitor or high-performance computing support) and larger storage capabilities. For example, BOXX’s top-end 4800 and 8500 series workstations feature overclocked CPU performance that provides a 25% higher frequency rate — that is, an Intel 2600k (Sandy Bridge) processor running at 4.5 GHz instead of 3.4 GHz. These workstations also provide support for as many as eight drive bays and an incredible seven PCI Express slots, allowing users to populate 18 TB of total storage and house seven single-width or four dualslot graphics cards.

But there’s more to be had at the upper end of the market, as vendors are taking a page from Apple’s book and investing an impressive amount of time and money to engineer hardware aesthetics and ergonomics, resulting in advances such as tool-less and (almost) cable-less designs; carefully designed air flow; and custom, workstation-specific, high-efficiency power supplies.

Start with Your Base Requirements

So do you really need a mid-range to high-end workstation? Will an entry-level CAD workstation do? The place to start is the base requirements for your CAD software of choice, then plan a system purchase accordingly. Note that this information makes a good starting point for configuring your workstation. We consider that the baseline, and you probably want some room to grow for software upgrades.

Also if you are doing any 3D modeling, look for faster and more capable processors, more RAM, more available hard disk space in addition to free space required for installation, and a graphics display adapter capable of at least 1,280 x 1,024 resolution in true color. The graphics card needs to have 128MB or more memory, support for Pixel Shader 3.0 or greater, and Microsoft Direct3D capabilities. (Again, consider these a starting point.)

Here at CADspeed, we sometimes talk about hardware in general terms, using descriptions like “entry-level” and “high-end” to describe the different categories of computer systems available on the market today.

But what does “high-end” mean when it comes to the dollars in your budget? This post defines those general categories to help our readers understand what CAD workstations cost and how much they are going to have to spend to find a machine that meets their CAD production needs.

The CAD Workstation Marketplace

In tracking the workstation market, Jon Peddie Research breaks workstations into several categories: mobile, low entry desktop, premium entry, mid-range, and high-end. Not surprisingly, the higher the category, the steeper the price.

Entry-level Systems

For a CAD workstation, anything below $2500 is considered to be an entry-level system. Here at CADspeed, we know that the need dictates the hardware. While you obviously need a system that works efficiently with your CAD software, buying a beefy system when you don’t need that level of power is simply wasteful, in terms of both money and efficiency. So depending on your CAD needs, $2,500 or less can buy a nice system in today’s market.

Until recently, the lowest desktop category was entry, plain and simple, composed of high-volume, single-socket machines. But with Intel’s introduction of the Westmere platform generation in 2010, the entry category split into two discernible subtiers: low and premium. Low entry machines are typically minitowers and low-profile, small–form factor machines.

Today’s premium entry system is most often a mini-tower configuration with two PCI Express x16 slots for graphics and perhaps more drive bay capacity. Mini-towers have fewer slots and bays for additional add-in cards and drives.

Small–form factor machines put a real premium on capacity, with perhaps only two drive bays and space for one low-profile PCI Express card for graphics. Small–form factor workstations have found a compelling home in certain installations that don’t necessarily demand maximum performance and where priorities include noise and heat reduction and space optimization. These installations are not typically CAD oriented.

For CAD production, a mini-tower will be a better bet in most cases and will allow for future upgrades of your graphics card, memory, or storage if needed.

What’s the difference between a workstation or consumer-grade PC, and why should you care? Well, ten to fifteen years ago, no one had trouble distinguishing between one and the other. Workstations were very expensive, high-performance, proprietary, 3D-equipped RISC or UNIX boxes. PCs were lower-cost, lower-quality toys that couldn’t handle 3D.

But all that has changed.

Economy of Scale

Spurred on by technological advances funded by the huge economies of scale in the broader PC markets, workstation OEMs such as HP, Sun and SGI got out of the component-making business, leaving that to independent hardware vendors (IHVs) such as Intel, AMD and NVIDIA. As a result, workstations today share technology with PCs and enjoy the economy-of-scale benefits that come with mass-market production.

That raises the question: If the guts of the PC and the guts of the workstation are the same, why pay a premium for the latter? Interestingly, those exorbitant workstation premiums of the past are long gone. Yes, you can still spend your entire system budget on a single high-end graphics card, but today’s entry-level system — which more than 80% of desktop workstation buyers choose (according to Jon Peddie Research) — can sell for only about $100 more than a similarly configured PC.

Independent Software Vendor Certification

Although you don’t have to pay much of a premium for a workstation, there are compelling reasons to do so. There’s a whole laundry list of benefits to be had, but at a minimum you’ll get independent software vendor (ISV) certification, meaning your CAD software developer has tested the hardware and vouches for its reliability, and in most cases, you’ll get a professional graphics card as well.

“It is important that CAD users select an ISV-certified workstation to help ensure that the demanding applications they depend on run smoothly, right out of the box,” said Greg Weir, director of Precision Workstation Product and ISV Marketing at Dell. “[ISV-certified hardware] comes with supported drivers to help eliminate issues and increase performance after the point of sale. This intense level of testing and development between an OEM and the ISV only comes with workstations.”

Not All Graphics Cards are Created Equal

In contrast to the graphics cards sought by gamers, professional graphics processing units (GPUs) enable special rendering modes unique to CAD in general, and often to your specific application as well. Drivers from AMD and NVIDIA optimize the quality and performance for common tasks such as rendering AutoCAD Smooth lines and Gooch shaders. Try to render the same visuals on noncertified, gamer-class hardware, and AutoCAD will turn off hardware acceleration, dropping your rendering to a relative crawl.

Many such entry-level models incorporate integrated graphics processing — that is, no discrete graphics card. Although in our opinion this option is not adequate for most CAD applications, it does offer improved graphics performance compared with a standard PC. According to Wes Shimanek, workstation product manager at Intel, “If you have been buying a PC to do CAD, you’ll want to rethink that investment and consider [a workstation]. This system offers you better performance for similar dollars to the PC you have been using.”

Optimizing hardware for SolidWorks is essential for getting the most out of this heavy-hitting CAD application, as we’ve discussed on CADspeed previously. So we were thrilled when the SolidWorks forum addressed this very issue recently on their forums.

The key to getting the most out of SolidWorks, or any CAD application for that matter, is ensuring your hardware can handle the workload. Remember that your situation is unique. In simple terms, two users using the same software on the same system may have very different perspectives on their workload efficiency if one is using 3D rendering and the other is not. Consider your needs first and foremost.

On the flip side, if you know you need new hardware, simply buying the most expensive machine may not pay off in the long run either. Think in terms of your productivity while shopping for a new workstation to get the most for your budget, hopefully with a little room to grow for those inevitable upgrades.

That said, here’s a summary of the recommendations straight from SolidWorks themselves.

RAM (Random-Access Memory)

The amount of RAM you need depends less on SolidWorks and more on the number of applications you run at the same time, plus the size and complexity of your SolidWorks parts, assemblies and drawings. SolidWorks recommends you have enough RAM to work with your common applications (i.e., Microsoft Office, email, etc.) and load your SolidWorks documents at the same time.

The recommended RAM for the current SolidWorks versions is 6GB. That should be your starting point. For more information on how much RAM you need, here’s a great resource on the SolidWorks forums.

CPU

Processor speed is another key factor when selecting the right hardware for you. It’s hard to sort through all the different options though, so we recommend testing a system with your actual models. SolidWorks also offers a helpful Performance Test, which offers a standardized test for determining performance of your major system components (i.e., CPU, I/O, video) when working with SolidWorks datasets. Even better, when you complete the SolidWorks Performance Test, you have an option to share your score with others. This gives you, and other community members, a sense of where a system stands relative to others. Nice!

Note that SolidWorks and some of its add-ons (PhotoView 360) have some multithreaded capabilities, so the application can use the second processor or multiple cores. But SolidWorks says that rebuilds are single threaded and therefore rebuilds generally will not be faster with multiple CPUs or cores.

Disk

The size of your hard drive or solid-state drive should be based on the disk space you need. Take a look at all your system’s components: operating system, applications and documents. If you work primarily on a network, your needs may be different than those who primarily use their local drive. Don’t forget to develop a back-up plan for your data, if you don’t already have one. (You do have one, right?)

AutoCAD WS is a versatile app for viewing, editing and sharing CAD designs whether you’re in the office, at a construction site or anywhere in between. The barriers to entry for this Autodesk product are minimal as it is available for free as a browser-based web app and as a mobile app for iOS and Android.

When determining the technical requirements for AutoCAD WS, it’s important to consider a number of different products that fall under the AutoCAD WS umbrella. What unites WS across all platforms is that users have the ability to enable an online account that can be accessed from anywhere. That means you never have to worry again about printing your designs and carrying them with you to meetings or building sites. With AutoCAD WS, you can access your work from any computer, iOS or Android device. Most significantly, AutoCAD WS ensures that regardless of the device you use to make changes to your designs, those changes will be available whenever you access them in your online account–wherever you are in the world.

Web

Let’s review how to get started with the AutoCAD WS web version. Essentially, this requires a browser, an internet connection and little more. AutoCAD WS runs in Internet Explorer, Firefox, Chrome, Safari and most other popular browsers. The web version is based on Flash so it will not run in mobile browsers that cannot run Flash. Fortunately, we have a mobile app solution that covers most of the market so our users are not limited to the Web.

Below, each AutoCAD WS mobile option is outlined with its specifications:

Mobile – iOS

AutoCAD WS may be installed on any version of the iPhone or iPad that is running iOS 3.0 or higher. You can download the latest version of the app for iOS by following this link.

Mobile – Android

Due to the diversity of the Android device market, it is impossible to test AutoCAD WS on every compatible device. Nevertheless, unless there is information to the contrary about a particular device, we believe AutoCAD WS can be installed on every smartphone or tablet running Android 2.1 or higher. You can download the latest version of the app for Android here.

AutoCAD WS for Mac

AutoCAD WS is also available for download as a native app for Mac users from the Mac App Store. Now you can view, edit and share your designs on any Mac machine running Mac OS X 10.6 or later.

AutoCAD

AutoCAD WS is directly accessible from AutoCAD 2012 and AutoCAD LT 2012 with the new, built-in “Online” tab. If you are running AutoCAD 2011, AutoCAD LT 2011, AutoCAD 2010 or AutoCAD LT 2010, you can download the WS plugin which will provide the online tab and allow you to upload your designs to your online account—and to share them with anyone you want.

With so many available entry points to AutoCAD WS, you can set yourself free from your workhorse desktop computer that sits under your desk at the office and being to experience the freedom of working whenever, wherever. You can take your designs with you wherever you go and you can collaborate with clients and colleagues wherever they are in the world—even if they have never used AutoCAD before, and even if they do not have an AutoCAD WS account.

Price and performance generally increase as you climb the workstation ladder, and so do heat, nose and power consumption. These metrics, which were of low or no concern years ago, are top of mind today.

Heat

We’re all looking to cut costs and go greener; electricity is used by your new machine, of course, but also in cooling the office space that the machine heats up. Remember the heat output of a workstation impacts the company’s overall utility bills. If you multiple that effect by the number of workstations in the office, it can have a measurable influence.

Noise

Although it might be easy to dismiss the concern over noise, we all know that nothing puts a damper on your productivity like the incessant whir of all those fans moving air through that desktop chassis. So how do you quantify the noise? Big buyers are actually measuring decibels now, before even checking out price tags and performance specs.

But for the rest of us without access to acoustics chambers, the basic premise is straightforward: the more watts the machine consumes, the higher your electric bill, the more heat is produced, and the greater the air flow necessary to cool it, meaning more noise.

Power Consumption

Where’s the greatest power consumption? For anyone who’s peered inside a chassis and seen the big heat sinks and fan sinks (with an active fan on top of the chip), you know the CPUs and GPUs are notorious problem areas. Über-clocked CPUs and GPUs consuming more than 150 watts mean more fans and more noise.

Testing a Workstation

Now every OEM is paying attention to more effective chassis design to optimize air flow and cooling, and these efforts are noticeably reducing noise. However, system noise is difficult to ascertain unless you can try out the unit yourself, so if unexpectedly high noise or power consumption is a major concern, see if you can buy at a brick-and-mortar store to more easily test it out and return, if necessary.

Otherwise, just keep in mind that choosing the fastest CPUs and GPUs — and opting for a dual processor for either — will drive up power consumption quickly, and chances are more noise will follow.